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I am so sorry for no updates for so darn long. Finishing my pre-requisites for nursing school kind of took over my life, and I lost the urge to blog anything. I have since gotten into nursing school, in fact, both schools I applied to accepted me, and I chose the University of North Florida. I chose the program because it was shorter therefore less expensive, and the school has a pretty solid reputation. Another big advantage to this program are the clinical locations that we get to go to, including Mayo Hospital (yeah I know), Shands Hospital Jacksonville, and Wolfson Children’s Hospital. These clinical locations offer me the best opportunity to get experience before I make my way into the workforce.

Anyway, I started school in May, got an apartment in Jacksonville with some awesome roommates, and have been extremely busy with schoolwork since then. I only get to come home to see the hubby and family every other weekend, but we are making it work for us. I am done with school on June 19, 2012 and I cannot wait to be able to sleep in my own bed with my husband and my puppy dog every single night, but until then we are making it work. I feel like I got extremely lucky because my second clinical location this semester for Adult Health Nursing is Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine, which is actually only ten minutes farther from my house in Daytona than it is from my apartment in Jacksonville. That means that the weekends I come home I actually get to stay home until Thursday morning instead of having to drive back on Monday. It means more nights sleeping in my bed, with my husband and my puppy dog. It is great.

As for school, I did great over the summer and actually ended up on the Dean’s List, which I am very proud of myself for doing that. This semester is much tougher with Psych/Rehab Nursing, Adult Health Nursing, and Professional Nursing Concepts all in the same semester. I am not doing as well this semester but I am maintaining a B or B+ average in all of my classes. I feel that I can make it through the rest of the semester with these grades, I’ll be okay. I cannot wait for this semester to be over! However, I am really looking forward to next semester because that is when we do OB/Pediatrics, so it is going to be an interesting semester.

After the spring semester, we only have 6 weeks left in the program. We only have a nursing science class and our final preceptorship, which is 6 weeks of working as a nurse unpaid in an area of our choosing at the hospital of our choosing. I am hoping to be able to get in at Flagler Hospital, since I think I would really like to work there when I graduate next year. This past week I was in the Cardiovascular Unit (CVU) at Flagler, and I absolutely love that environment, especially at this hospital. The nurses were all really wonderful and my patients were great. I really feel like I may be following Elise’s over at the Hungry, Hungry, Hippie’s example a little. She also went to an accelerated nursing program, and she works in the cardiac ICU. I think I really am going to love being a nurse…now just to figure out what to do for my master’s degree.

Now, when it comes to my diet, that’s a different story. When I started the nursing program, I was still eating super healthy 100% vegan, and then school started getting busier. I started eating out a lot more and being more lenient with my diet. I started leaning towards a more lacto-vegetarian just because it was easier to eat out if I let more dairy into my diet, but it started to take its toll and my body revolted against me. I stopped losing weight, in fact I regained 6 pounds, and I felt like crap. This past week I restarted on a 100% vegan diet by following Lindsay over at the Happy Herbivore’s Healthy 1200 calorie diet plans.

I have been feeling great since I started, and I love the fact that the recipes are either for 1 or 2 so I don’t have a ton of leftovers, especially when I am Jacksonville where we have limited refrigerator space. I am motivated to be back on track, and I have been feeling full even with only 1200 calories per day. I have found my new favorite smoothie the Cinnamon Bun smoothie. It is amazing, creamy, and absolutely delicious! I think Lindsay is doing a great job putting these meal plans together and I’ve only had to sub out a few meals due to soy. Thankfully, a lot of the recipes that call for soy sauce I can substitute Coconut Aminos, which gives the same type of flavor with lower sodium and the best part is no soy! It’s getting easier and easier to be vegan with a soy allergy. Now, if they would only start selling non-soy based tofu, hemp-fu here in the States, it would be amazing. I know I can make it myself but tell me when I have the time or the energy. I am going to try making my own seitan so I don’t have to have the soy sauce that all the brands I’ve found around here…even thinking of making Seitan Carnitas to share some yumminess with the roommates.

I am back on track, and I will be blogging more often…I just need to remind myself to take the time and do it! Pictures will be posted soon. I promise!